storing and conditioning beer

[supergreenmini]

I have started brewing 75ltr and 100ltr brews and i am at the point where i want to store the fermented beer before putting in the final vessel for dispensing. I believe breweries use large bright tanks or something along those lines.

would these do the trick? http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/New-Quality-P ... 4d426ef21c

If so, i am likely to be storing the beer for a number of weeks. Would i need to have an airlock on the top or just release pressure from time to time?

Mark

[simon12]

There is no reason you can't store beer in them but I don't see why you would as there is no reason not to just leave it in the fermenter unless you just want to free up the fermenter. Bright tanks hold filtered beer under pressure to get the CO2 level perfect before keging.

[guypettigrew]

As simon12 says, what do you hope to achieve by storing your beer before dropping it into the final dispensing vessel?

Guy

[Wonkydonkey]

Well conditioning beer is really IMHO, getting the beer off of the main yeast cake from the fv. And adding time depending on the sg of the beer. There are many things to add to make the beer bright, but if you don't want to add stuff then it's time and temp dependant on each brew.
I mostly ferment 1 to 2weeks, dependant on yeast and reaching final gravity., some yeast drop quick and some hang,,, which is is where the temp can come in handy to help.. But it may not be possible in your system. Which you may now look at other quicker methods other than time ? Racking off helps. Or adding some sort of finings and then racking off I do the forma and this is helped with a bit of chilling. My beer gets a few days in the low 2-5c and then goes into the cornie.and gets forced carbed, but others add a bit of priming sugar with a spunding valve. Or you maybe serving a different way ? cask?
Either way too much yeast in the bottom of your serving keg will end up giving cloudy beer or other flavours that you may not want over time, depending how long it takes to drink?

Cheers

[Kev888]

Unless you are always very sure that FG has completely been reached, then a plastic barrel may benefit from having a PRV added (such as the type Pressure Barrels use). I don't know the pressure rating of those barrels, so best check it is not extremely low.

Personally I found stainless kegs were better for large batches; with the longer storage times involved, the beer keeps better in them and in addition to bulk maturing they are suitable for carbonating/priming in too. You can do keg-to-keg transfers and so effectively use the first keg as a bright tank, but often this isn't needed if flocculant yeast were used (or time in the FV was generous) and the kegs stored cool. A 'little' yeast in the keg helps to look after the beer, it is heavy (and especially warm) sediment that is more of an issue long term.

[supergreenmini]

Thank you all for your responses. My main need is to free up my fermenters with my plan to bottle some of it and then to keg some, bag in a box some and eventually start putting into pins or firkins. Cost is the main reason why i have not jumped for cornies, pins or firkins. I am planning on taking beer to some parties over the summer and would like to batch produce and keep it until required. I will then put it into bag in a boxes and will serve via my hand pull (beer engine)